イ・オ・ン

I.O.N

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
November 1, 1997
CHAPTERS
6

DESCRIPTION

Ion Tsuburagi chants the letters of her first name as a charm to bring good luck when she needs it. Then she meets Mikado Hourai, the president of the Psychic Powers Research Society at school, and touches a mysterious substance he’s been developing. Now chanting “I-O-N” gives her telekinetic powers!

(Source: Viz Media)

CAST

Ion Tsuburagi
Mikado Hourai
Tagosaku
Kouki Shiraishi
Ai Minase

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

RoseFaerie
70/100
I.O.N is a ridiculous, standard high school romance with a side of superpowers, though the author's inexperience shows.
I think Arina Tanemura is one of those authors who I intend to read the complete English translated bibliography of. It wasn't what I intended to do, but Sakura-hime included some tie-in bonus chapters to short Tanemura manga I never read, and so I read them in order to understand the oneshots. I.O.N was my favorite of the two (the other being Mistress Fortune), as a fun read despite being very cliche and ridiculous

Ion always chants the letters of her name as a "jinx" to bring herself good luck. One day, desperate to escape the obsessively love-struck student council president, she encounters Mikado Hourai. Mikado is a nerdy type, extremely interested in psychic research, going so far as to create an unofficial club. Ion begins to fall for him and wants to assist him with his club activities. However, Mikado's research is destroyed, but before that happens, the object he's researching triggers psychic powers in Ion. Mikado can now continue his work, but does he see Ion as a test subject or as a potential girlfriend?

I.O.N is Arina Tanemura's first work and it shows. It's not as polished art or story-wise, and it's very generic and very silly. We get standard high school romance instead of her usual magical girls, though with a dash of psychic powers. Ion and Mikado very much embody the popular classic shoujo protagonist and the attractive yet appealing outcast boy. They're cute and have chemistry, but they aren't anything unique or groundbreaking. It just has the classic retro shoujo feel, and it reminded me of Good Morning Call. The biggest conflict of their relationship is how Mikado seems to see Ion more as a test subject than a girl.

There's a love rival for both characters. There's the student council president, who is in love with Ion, though he's not really meant to be taken seriously. He kind of reminds me of a character my sister and I made up for all our stories and paper doll games who's just super bizarre (while horribly pretending to be a stereotypical cool kid) and obsessed with a certain female character. Of course, the character my sister and I made is much weirder than the student council president ever could be (in an I make necklaces out of grapes and give them to my crush way, and not an I'm hiding in your closet and taking pictures through my window way). The two just have the same energy as chaotic gag characters. The president also has a silly little sidekick and they're always up to shenanigans, sometimes for no discernable reason.

The other love rival character was a former test subject and girlfriend of Mikado's. She had strong intuition, but she developed it into genuine psychic powers out of her sheer desire to be his girlfriend. She challenges Ion to a psychic battle for Mikado's heart. Honestly, her character was also ridiculous, and I wondered why she wanted to be with Mikado so badly since it didn't seem like he was that special, and I'm sure she broke up with him in the first place. (I'm a bit fuzzy on the details since I got a bit distracted, and it's been a few days since I read the manga.)

The art is a bit rougher than what Arina Tanemura usually offers due to I.O.N being her first work. It's cute and has an appealing vibe (something about late 90's shoujo manga), but it's nowhere near as distinctive or elegant as her later art. It still has her distinctive huge eyes, which influenced a plethora of shoujo mangaka, especially those writing for the same young audience as Tanemura.

I.O.N is a very silly manga and it's nothing to write home about in terms of plot or characters. However, it's a charming read that I personally enjoyed. It’s interesting to see what Tanemura’s manga was like before her trademark drama-heavy magical girl series. If you want some unabashedly ridiculous psychic powered romance and that late 90's shoujo style, I recommend checking this out. It's only one volume long so it wouldn't hurt to read.
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